Teresa Grainger (now Cremin) et al, 2005

from 'Creativity and writing: developing voice and verve in the classroom': Grainger (Cremin), Goouch and Lambirth, 2005

Talking and writing: Lateracy for Literacy

"Talk, play and find your own voice."

Grainger et al review the principles of literacy development in the light of the 'We're Writers' research project (cf Graham Digested read number 8, above).

They describe how, in daily life with others, and from their own particular 'cultural litter' (Paul 2001), children lease out how spoken language works. In their talking, playing and drawing, children make meanings, try out different selves, gauge reactions and grow more confident in who they are. They gather narratives, symbols and metaphors fro their play, forging identities through which they favour, connect and re-invent - and through how these are felt. this early progress can be developed and explored, in a nurturing classroom, through interaction, by reflecting on language, and by writing collaboratively and creatively.

The language-rich, nurturing classroom is critical to continuing the creativity which characterises early language learning. Creativity is key to learning for all learners - and a pre-requisite for the necessary risk-taking is a degree of confidence. 'Creative language is not a capacity of special people, but the special capacity of all people.' (Carter 2004) Children are more likely to exercise such creativity when they are motivated to take control of language and use it for their own purposes. However, a culture which favours teacher-controlled, measurable literacy progress of each individual can be at odds with child-centred collaborative practices, where meanings are negotiated in a rich and purposeful language environment. (Progress will be more likely achieved by working with the child's intentions than the teacher's objectives: cf Alexander 2000 'If we want children to use talk for learning then what (children) say matters more that what teachers say', and Graham 2003 the motivation for learning about writing provided by the autonomy of writing journals.)

Restricted, over-tightly defined literacy programmes which seek progress of particular skills irrespective of a child's agency or emotional readiness are damaging and counter-productive to writing progress. Confident and self-directing learners need to be freed from others' imposition and given space for intuition. poetry, multi-modal experiment, free association, oblique and reflective approaches. Without time to practise exploratory and critical talk about writing, their progress will be restricted. This is not a soft option. It raises standards by refining and socialising meaning-making: 'playfulness, knowledge and judgement are all necessary elements in writing and are woven through the process in spoken threads'. Talking with others about writing not only develops a language for discussing writing but also provides external critical voices which later become internalised. (cf the importance of response partnership). "If strong relationships of trust and respect are created in the classroom, then young writers can learn to respond to one another's work with interest and insight, responding to the human who wrote it as well as developing their critical awareness of its features, functions and purposes." In responding to children's writing, teachers need to attend to meaning first and ensure that any skills targets set are contextualised and do not obscure the prime importance of personal purposes and audiences.

Choice and autonomy in writing

'VOICES BOOMING THROUGH'

Grainger et al explore the importance of providing a rich and exciting range of expressive and purposeful language, and of giving children time to explore, choose and shape their own writing, individually and collectively: 'writing needs to be cultivated, rather than imposed.' Writing journals provide 'privileged space' in which pupils can experience the power of taking risks, developing independence and establishing their own cultural connections (cf Lynda Graham, Digested read no 8)

PUPIL VOICE

Children were more motivated to write when they were free to choose content and method. Thus 5-7 year olds were more enthusiastic about writing than 7-11 year olds who experienced a greater prescription and saw themselves less as learners than as pupils (or 'sites of investment' Lee 2001). Their distinctive identities were blurred by the system's view of them as items to be progressed along a particular cline. Three quarters of them attributed their more negative writing attitude to the lack of choice, voice and imaginative freedom that they were allowed in the classroom. Research showed that the backwash of tests diminished pupils' engagement, creativity, and the autonomy of learners and teachers (Wiggins 1993, Moss 1994, Frater 2000, Pullman 2003)

UNFAIR

'Currently in schools judged as failing to meet their targets, frequently in socially deprived areas, the National Curriculum is slimmed down, the National Literacy Strategy is delivered more prescriptively and the formal school curriculum is differentiated along social class lines' (Coles et al 2001) This reduces opportunities for critical thought and creative educational experience.

ACTIVE NOT PASSIVE TECHNIQUE

'Of course techniques matter; without these nothing substantial can be achieved. But unless children experience the richer meanings that literacy can give them, they are unlikely to become literate in the sense of making their own active use of literacy outside school as a well as in .' (Dombey 1998)

JOURNALS

Journals raise the status of children as real writers (Cf Lynda Graham Digested Read 8). Children can articulate their peer's experience far more authentically and directly than any adult. Some teachers introduced journals daily, some for 15-20 minutes two or three times a week. In the sharing at the end of each session, ideas begin to circulate, confidence and motivation grow in expressing their own cultures, In doing this they discover the potency of an audience of themselves. Multi-modal writing becomes a 'Midwife to their growing sense of self' - a well-rounded, culturally connected practice rather than a two-dimensional culturally restricted discipline. For, as Graves observed (1983), when an author makes a good choice of subject, their voice 'booms through'. With children having a a greater say, teachers' roles shift to facilitator, observer, confidential listener - rather than leader and expert. Classroom relationships become more personally and socially responsive with a broader 'knowledge economy' - in which cultures of home, community and school overlap.

'... Cremin (2006) reports on a UK-based study of a two-year research/richard-andrews.html and development project on creativity and writing. Sixteen primary school teachers wrote regularly at home and at school; they reflected critically on the process. Working in the interpretive-constructivist tradition, Cremin describes via case-studies, how three of the teachers experienced ambiguity, risk-taking and some emotional discomfort during the process of writing, sharing writing and publishing . All, however, felt the process worthwhile - and one that made them more confident in encouraging and developing children as writers. Cremin concludes:

"Based upon this study, it is suggested that the learning entitlement of teachers, both pre- and post-initial training should encompass sustained opportunities to take part in extended literacy activities and in particular should involve written composition at their own level." (p.429)

Writing Voices, Creating Communities of Writers Teresa Cremin and Debra Myhill, Routledge 2012 From its title onwards this book allows us to hear the conversations, both external and internal, which characterise and complicate the process of writing in any community. This makes it an invaluable read for teachers who recognise the inadequacy of a uniformly linear model of progression in the external forms of writing which, in a climate which favours accelerated individual advancement, too often results in pupils bamboozled into employing ‘insincere rhetoric’ – just as identified by the Bullock report as long ago as 1975. The authors point out that shallow encounters with unfamiliar genres do not allow learners to understand how conventions have evolved or are used, nor experience the power structures which lead to particular writing choices. This book provides evidence to correct this imbalance. The introduction provides a selection of recent writing projects with which the authors have been involved over the last 13 years. There are useful reminders here of how film, talk and drama can provide the necessary emotional charge to start writing, and to sustain a ‘voice’ better than in slavishly following of structures; but there is evidence too of how critical reflection on effective structures can give writers confidence to craft more powerful forms with new authority. The first chapter explores how shifting social circumstances privilege different aspects of writing, citing historical shifts in the importance ascribed to spelling or socio-political shifts in the valuing of independent voice. Writers are valued and encouraged according to what society wants writing to do. Teachers will find here a rich variety of ways to enhance the writing process with meaningful, recursive experiences for their young writers, as well as for themselves.. As Cremin and Myhill state on page 35, ‘ The emergent nature of writing and the role of thinking one’s way forwards through writing are arguably under-recognised in schooling … writing can help students think through their ideas and find out what they want to say.’ However, the authors also investigate the charge that ‘process’ writing is culturally biased, and may leave younger writers lacking the necessary, empowering structures. The book is illustrated by ‘vignettes’ of writing, usefully coupled with reflection by writers on the process. Writing is explored as both an act of personal exploration and of social empowerment.